OXFORD, Miss. — The family and attorney for Dominique Clayton, a 32-year-old mother of four who was shot dead at her Oxford home May 19, said they will seek the death penalty for the man accused of the crime if he is convicted.
Matthew Kinne, an Oxford police officer, was arrested in connection to the crime two days after Clayton was killed. He was fired from the Oxford Police Department following his arrest.
Because of the nature of the crime, attorney Carlos Moore, who has been on the job for one day, said he will be seeking the death penalty if Kinne is convicted of the crime.
For the death penalty in Mississippi, the murder must be classified as a capital murder, meaning another felony was committed to lead to the murder. Moore said he thinks that’s the case here.
“We believe that Ms. Clayton did not let him in her home; we believe she was asleep when he got there,” Moore said. “So how did he get in? If he burglarized her home and them committed murder … I believe that’s capital murder, and capital murder would deserve the death penalty.”
[protected-iframe id=”6af7b6873229d01d86ad9607605f3d72-29519520-149092669″ info=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fwreg3%2Fvideos%2F2275313362504848%2F&show_text=0&width=560″ width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ style=”border: none; overflow: hidden;” scrolling=”no”]
Clayton was found dead in her home by her youngest child. Moore said the family’s ideal result would be death by firing squad, which was recently made into law in Mississippi.
“Mississippi made it the law that we can execute people by firing squad,” Moore said. “I believe that lethal injection isn’t good enough. This man needs to be executed by firing squad for what he did if he is found guilty in a court of law.”
The circumstances under which Kinne allegedly killed Clayton are still unclear, but the family said they will hold any person or group involved accountable.
“While I am very appreciative of the mayor and the interim police chief, if Oxford was somehow complicit in this murder, if they somehow enable, if their policies somehow contributed to this death, we’re going to hold everyone accountable, including the city of Oxford,” Moore said.
Kinne was denied bond by a judge Friday.
—WREG’s Peter Fleischer contributed
